Swimmers share success at Country Championships

A 71-STRONG South Gippsland Bass swim team competed at the 2026 Mattioli Country LC Championships, hosted by the Barwon Region in Kardinia Pool in Geelong, giving their all against the best of the rest of regional Victoria.

The event attracted 770 regional swimmers, including 232 Gippslanders, making it a busy event and the purple caps were frequently spotted going up and down the pool in the heats and finals, buoyed by the support of friends and families.

Swimmers raced in the heats in the morning, with many competing in the afternoon in the finals, including in the relays which rounded up each session.

The coaches were thrilled with the team effort.
Coach Dylan was very happy with their determination.

“It really has been a team effort in getting the points. There has been a lot of people pushing hard to improve their ranking, they may not have won a medal – but a top-10 spot gains a few extra points. Our B relay teams have really worked on this and scored us about 40 points by just pushing that little bit harder,” he said.

“We have a lot of swimmers at their first Countries this year. So many of them are starting their journey into competitive swimming and at the same time, we have a large number of our older swimmers returning for their eighth or ninth Countries, including our new coach Nathan, to help guide them and help them on their way, which makes for such a fun time. When they all eventually finish swimming, we want them to look back and remember this as a fun time in their life and consider it as something they are proud of, of what they did and what they achieved.”

Nathan Foote, who has returned to the club as a coach enjoyed his time getting to know everyone.

“I’ve been to Countries many times as a swimmer with South Gippsland Bass. The first time there was just a handful of us, so to have 71 swimmers in the team now is amazing and shows how much the club has grown. I look forward to working with everyone and seeing them enjoy their racing. It’s been fun getting in the water too, competing and enjoying the atmosphere,” he said.

Foote was also the winner of the coaches’ 50m Freestyle race.
Coach Lorri saw some great performances from her Multi Class team.

“We have taken out back-to-back golds in the relays and I just love the support from everyone when they are racing. There’s always another swimmer who offers to help calm the nerves at marshalling and help wrangle the U12s. There has been a lot of great relay swims from our U12s who are just starting out on their Countries journey,” she said.

Coach Sam loved watching the older swimmers compete.

“My daughter is here as a swimmer for the ninth time and she and her friends are just as competitive in the over-17 relay as they were when they were in the U12s.

They are great role models for the club – last night the younger kids got to see their B team celebrating seventh spot – showing them that it isn’t just about the medals, but about putting in as a team for the club.”

The swimmers were well supported by all the SGB families, who made the most of the time and spent time enjoying the region’s sights between racing.

The Gippsland clubs were extremely competitive and all featured high on the club scores table.

South Gippsland Bass maintained its place as one of the dominant regional clubs, finishing fourth overall.

It was a real team effort with points being earned by many of the swimmers as they competed in their events.

The final points score had the other Gippsland clubs also placing well, with Traralgon in second, Warragul sixth and Sale 10th.